I'd like to weigh in on that one...

Because the band I'm in only does 2 shows a year, Halloween and Valentines Day, so we go LONG periods of not playing - especially between VD and Halloween.. Normally we don't practice from VD until about September, when we start getting together once a week for a couple of hours.. 2 hours doesn't equal the amount of songs we play in a night, especially with all the BSing that goes on at practice, so one practice probably actually includes about half the songs we'll do in a show, which is in the neighborhood of 30..

So, we do practice before shows after long periods of not playing together.. we have to because a lot of the tunes are precision tunes that require practice together.. Also, we practice individually at home all during the off-season, so its not like we come in September cold..

In addition, since we run a fairly sophisticated production these days - including a DMX computerized light show, customized videos and audio we project on a huge screen behind us, samples and all kinds of other crap, I have to coordinate all that stuff at the house during the off-season.. I have to set up the lights and smoke machines at the house to program them and whatnot so my wife can practice running them all.. I break it all down the night before the show..

Since we "follow" the videos on the big screen, which includes an extended intro clip, and videos for each song, we have to practice with the videos to get the timing right.. So, we actually have the video system hooked up at practice and run the vids while we play..

Sp, a whole lot of coordination going on for one measly two hour practice a week for 8 weeks before a show, but that's all they give me.. if we'd spend some time really getting it together we could really be Rock Gods, but some people don't have my motivation.. Here's a pic showing the background video screen (with an animation of our mascot giving the X sign, while on fire, and one of our lasers firing..